Local NHS under significant pressure as we head into the Easter weekend
People across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are being urged to ‘choose NHS services wisely’ as demand remains high going into the Easter weekend.
Together, organisations as part of the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System have declared today (Thursday 14 April 2022) declared a Critical Incident to prioritise and maintain safety of services.
We continue to deal with high demand for our Urgent and Emergency Care services, high numbers of patients waiting to be admitted to wards and high numbers of patients who are well enough to be discharged from hospital but have nowhere appropriate ready to care for them.
How this might impact you
Staff are working hard to continue to provide the best possible care to patients and staff will be prioritising urgent and emergency care and the most seriously ill patients at this time.
We have taken the difficult decision to pause a number of non-urgent operations and procedures. We are very sorry we have had to take this step but it is important that we focus on patients needing urgent and emergency care.
Cancer and our other most urgent operations and appointments will continue to be prioritised and we are in the process of contacting patients whose appointments and procedures may need to be rescheduled.
If your appointment has been affected, you will be contacted directly. If you are not contacted, please continue to attend your appointment as planned. If you cannot make an appointment, please contact the number on your appointment letter so that it can be reallocated to another patient.
What you can do to help
Even when our hospitals are exceptionally busy, your NHS remains here for you and essential services remain fully open for anyone who needs them. There are number of things you can do to help the NHS right now, including:
- Only call 999 or attend accident and emergency departments for serious accidents and for genuine emergencies
- When you need urgent medical care but it’s not an emergency, please visit NHS 111 online or call NHS111 for advice on how to get the care you need at any time of day or night
- Urgent treatment centres can help you get the care you need for dealing with the most common issues that people attend emergency departments for. They will often be able to help you get the care you need more quickly than accident and emergency departments if you are suffering from things like a burn or a sprain
- Please continue to treat all NHS staff with the respect they deserve. The NHS has a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of any kind that targets our hard-working staff and volunteers when they are doing all they can to keep patients safe and supported
- If you cannot make an appointment, please contact the number on your appointment letter so that it can be reallocated to another patient.